


You and I are Genii

by artfan13



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Enemy is the goverment, Genii, M/M, Multi, genius
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-29
Updated: 2012-07-29
Packaged: 2017-11-11 00:44:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artfan13/pseuds/artfan13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the world discovers the existence of Genii the governments of the world become willing to go to any lengths to capture these individuals. Tony and Bruce, two geniuses who also happen to be Genii both end up in another country while trying to do whatever it takes to rescue their people. Meanwhile the other Avengers are busy trying to find their lost teammates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You and I are Genii

When the existence of Genii and what they were able to do was first revealed to the world, governments from all over had immediately gone to great lengths to gather up these rather rare and scattered people. What happened to those who they captured and imprisoned was a subject that was often brought up but didn’t have an answer no matter who you talked to. To the Genius men and women out there who hadn’t yet been taken, the world had suddenly become a very scary and unsafe place. Often times, whole families and individuals would just disappear in the middle of the night only to reappear again in a different country under a different name.

 

That was exactly what Bruce Banner decided to do when he had heard about what the governments were doing. Immediately after he decided that he was going to leave, he thought about bringing Tony with him. Together they could surely evade the authorities and manage to live peacefully until the end of their days, right? Unfortunately for Bruce, Tony had been away at a meeting the day he had planned to tell him and Bruce had been forced to leave by himself or miss his only chance of leaving the country.

 

It was surprisingly easy, Bruce found, to hide his identity with simply a pair of glasses and a scarf that covered his nose and mouth. Sadly, he had to remove said scarf when he reached the warm climate of Colombia. On the plus side he had managed to quickly and quietly purchase a modest little cottage in the countryside that still had the advantage of being only a quick jog away from a busy town. What he hadn’t expected when he got home from shopping for milk and eggs was Tony standing in the middle of his kitchen, staring with tired eyes at the confused Bruce. The other man said nothing and only leaned forward to grab at the bags hanging off of the other scientist’s arms. That was when Bruce noticed the splatters of blood coating his friend’s sleeves.

 

His first instinct was to reel back in revulsion. Instead he squashed down any shameful thoughts and musings of _how_ Tony had gotten those spots on his sleeve in the first place and wrapped the other man in a bear hug. Tony being Tony he stiffened at the contact and tried to pull away at first. Then he sighed and his entire being just _sagged_.

 

It was silent for a few moments until Bruce felt the familiar feeling of curiosity come back with a vengeance.

 

“Tony… what happened?” he asked. The other man simply shook his head and clung tighter to Bruce’s shirt. Suddenly, a thought crashed into Bruce’s brain and he felt himself suddenly wrench Tony away so he could stare into his face.

 

“Tony… how did you find me?” he demanded. He had to know- this was _important_. If they had to move soon Bruce would like to start packing now rather than later.

 

“I- with the Genius,” Tony stated calmly. Normally- before this whole mess- that would have been a narcissistic statement that earned Tony either glares or exasperated glances. Now it just was a statement. Bruce sighed in relief. No one could have followed Tony if he used the Genius. They were safe. For now. He quickly shook that thought away and pulled Tony back into his chest, soothingly rubbing his back.

 

After ten minutes of simply basking in the warmth of each other Bruce peeled himself away from the other man and made his way to the counter where his groceries still sat. It took him all of fifteen minutes to put everything in their right place (he had labels and everything). Once he was done he turned to look at Tony, who was still standing in the place Bruce had left him. A frown graced his own face before he wandered over and gently shook Tony a little.

 

“Oh sorry, Bruce,” Tony muttered when he finally stopped staring off into space to look instead into the worried face of the other scientist. Bruce sighed. Something was wrong with Tony and whatever it was would, no doubt, not go away until Tony talked about it to someone. If Bruce was that person, well he wasn’t complaining. To ensure them the greatest chance of living in good health until their deaths, a happy and content Tony was just about mandatory.

 

“Talk, Tony, what happened. And don’t try to run away. There’s nowhere to go to… not anymore,” Bruce ordered. When Tony flinched at the obvious allusion to his lab Bruce knew this was going to be bad.

 

When Tony finally opened his mouth, it was like the world stopped spinning.

 

“They… they killed JARVIS. Butterfingers… and You… and even D-D-Dummy didn’t even escape their shitty treatment. Oh god!” Tony suddenly exclaimed as if he just realized that his bots were gone, and he buried his face in his hands. It took him a few minutes to continue, time that Bruce used to fully grasp what Tony just said.

 

“Then they went after all of the other Avengers with this fucking annoying machine that just kept beeping and I-” Tony tried to explain only to choke up instead. In his head he could see it all clearly. He could see the shiny yellow jumpsuits the men had been wearing when they entered the mansion. He could hear their loud voices as they grabbed all of the Avengers and made them line up while yelling horrid insults at those who refused to comply. He could smell the faint odor of blood when, after testing everyone else, they finally reached him and that god damned machine of theirs starting beeping hysterically in a way that almost sounded like Dummy-

 

“Tony! Tony calm down! You’re with me now. Your safe here,” Bruce’s voice pierced through the fog, the nightmare. It was almost ironic really, how usually it was Tony who was calming down Bruce… not the other way around. Still, it worked and Tony finally had stopped thrashing enough to keep talking.

 

“I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble,” Tony apologized. The other man merely shook his head and gestured for Tony to continue.

 

“Right, um,” Tony started with a shaky laugh, “When these men… in hideous yellow suits entered the mansion… of course JARVIS went into a frenzy and they just… they shut him down. I don’t know how I just… well anyway, they just barged in, lined up all of the Avengers and started testing us with their machines. God I was so scared… and then they finally got to me and the fucking beeping noise started. Then everything became chaotic! When they grabbed me and tried to haul ass out of there… the others- god the others- blocked there way and started beating them up. Of course, there was a whole bunch of them and while Steve, Natasha, and Clint are great at hand-to-hand-combat they’re still not the Hulk or Thor (why Thor insisted on seeing Jane that day is beyond me; she’s not a Genius after all… at least, not like we are). Then the ones holding me started backing away and ran down to the lab (fucking idiots the lot of them). Stupid me left the door open and when they effectively locked the Avengers out they only had to deal with my _idiot_ bots who thought that they’d be enough to stop them. God, you can’t imagine how I felt when I saw them kick over You and fucking tase Butterfingers. But, dammit, Dummy was the worst. He was constantly tugging at their clothing and ignoring my commands for him to _get away_ until they finally grew tired of it tore him apart! God I didn’t… he didn’t even… I just… it’s just them and their fucking fucked up heads.”

 

Bruce stared at the man before him. He knew that the trembling lump that stood before him wasn’t going to be saying any more and he resigned himself to practically dying from the need to know as he latched onto the other and started towards his room. There were still many questions to be answered and the other half of the story to be told… but for now what Tony needed was rest. He quickly gathered the smaller man in his arms when Tony failed to move on his own and half dragged half carried the other to his bedroom where he set Tony down softly on the mattress. He could sleep on the couch.

 

When he finally got Tony settled and the other slipped into the calming darkness of sleep, he grabbed a spare blanket from one of his moving boxes and settled down on his new couch. It was apparent in the few minutes he spent staring into space, still processing the fact that mere hours after he’d left all that had happened, he wasn’t going to be going to sleep just yet. His gut wrenched at the thought of what happened to the others. He could make guesses, assumptions, but he’d never know the truth unless either Tony could tell him or he drew attention to himself by going back.

 

He sighed after a good half hour of his soul just torturing itself on thoughts of “what if” and “what happened” and rolled onto his side. It took another half hour to simply fall asleep, but luckily that sleep was uninterrupted by any nightmares: a small mercy in the overall unfairness of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> *I'm sorry but I hardly did any research for this fic so much of my information on different countries or science in general is probably wrong. Please disregard.  
> *More will be explained such as the powers that are possessed by these Genii and what happened that had Tony so distraught  
> *Yeah... I'm sorry if anyone's out of characters... it's just that despite the fact that Tony totally isn't a woobie... I felt that the destruction of his bots and the fact that he won't ever be accepted by general society ever again might make him lose his mask... at least in front of someone who's like him  
> *This IS Steve/Tony so just bear with me please  
> *Lastly, this is my first story in this fandom... so please disregard any mistakes in terms of tags etc.


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